7 6 



unperceived for a long time, and which bore 

 for title : Criticism on Political Economy, by 

 Karl Marx it was the precursor of Capital. 



"What Darwin's book on the Origin of 

 Species is for the genesis and evolution of 

 unconscious nature up to man, the work of 

 Marx is for the genesis and evolution of the 

 community of human beings, of States, and 

 of the social forms of humanity."* 



And that is why Germany, which has been 

 the most fruitful field for the development of 

 Darwinian theories, has been the same for 

 the conscious, disciplined propaganda of 

 socialist ideas. And that is precisely why at 

 Berlin in the libraries of socialist propaganda 

 the works of Charles Darwin occupy the place 

 of honour beside those of Karl Marx.| 



* L. Jacoby, L'Idea dell' evoluzione in Bibliotheca dell' 

 economista, series III., vol. ix., part 2, p. 69. 



t At the death of Darwin the Sozialdemokrat of 27 

 April, 1882, wrote : "The proletariat which is struggling 

 for its emancipation will always honour the memory of 

 Charles Darwin." 



I know that in the last few years, perhaps in conse- 

 quence of the relations between Darwinism and social- 

 ism, the objections made to Darwin's theory by Ncegeli 

 have been taken up again, and more recently by 

 Weissmann on the hereditary transmissibility of acquired 

 characteristics. But all that only concerns this or that 

 detail of Darwinism, whilst the fundamental theory of 

 organic transformism remains unshaken. 



